You can not make disciples unless you are ready to pay the full price

Last Sunday we celebrated the Descent of the Holy Spirit, that is the birthday of the Christian church. In those times, the church was growing very quickly and it was healthy because it was based on a principle of discipleship set by Jesus Christ Himself, and it was observed by the apostles and other servants of the Gospel. These days I have also read some news from the Christian world about some leaders that share great plans to conquer the whole world through the Gospel for future, but they want to do it without being ready to pay the price of discipleship. Here is what I mean when I say this:

We can not conquer the world for Christ if we make effort only for organization and fundraising

Some leaders measure the efficiency of the organization according to the number of persons that can be brought together to a single Christian event, such as a festival, an evangelization, crusade, sport demonstration, etc. All these events are good, but continuity lacks in almost all cases, people come once and then, they don’t come to church, or to a Bible study group and they don’t make many changes in their lives. Of course, we do need a good organization and fundraising for an efficient ministry, but this is not the priority.

The priority is to teach people the Word of God continually

This is what the first disciples have done. In the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended, after Apostle Peter preached and about three thousand souls repented and were baptized, the apostles began the process of discipleship, i.e they began to teach them the Holy Scriptures, as the Book of Acts states this:

So then, those who had received his (Peter’s) word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. (Acts 2:41–42)(NASB)

This text continues to say that people were going to the Temple day by day, and the disciples were teaching them the Word of God. Unfortunately, today the number of the servants of the Gospel who are ready to dedicate themselves totally in the process of making disciples is less. This is difficult, but there is no other easier way. Preaching and teaching people are two different things. One who wants to make disciples has to dedicated himself totally to the process of discipleship, spend much time with his disciples, teaching them the Word of God and helping them to apply it to their lives being a model for them.